


The Moment Everything Changes

by Clockwork



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Backstory, Friendship Lost, High School, Homophobia, M/M, Teenagers are dumb, slur used
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-10 01:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18650218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockwork/pseuds/Clockwork
Summary: It's the first boy/girl party the summer before high school and Kyle is serious about ensuring his high school experience is an afterschool special. Even if it means destroying his best friend and their friendship in the process.  Otherwise known as what happened the day Kyle grew his first chest hair, as Alex put it.





	The Moment Everything Changes

It was the first boy/girl party of the summer after middle school. Next year they would all be in high school. Sure it meant being freshmen, lowest of the low, but this was it. They’d made it this far and Kyle was damn well prepared to so straight into high school as the coolest freshman Roswell High had ever known. Jan Sutton’s thirteenth birthday party was his chance to set the reputation he’d have to live with for the next four years. No one questioned that he’d take first string quarterback of the JV team, but that wasn’t going to be enough. The right jeans, the right sneaks, the right exacting care taken in looking as positively graceless and casually hot without trying as he could, after spending hours of trying.

Hanging with a couple of the guys he was going to football summer camp with in a few weeks, red solo cup of soda in hand, swaying to the music as he looked around, checking out girls he’s known for a few years and those new from outside the city limits. Not everyone there was their age, their class, and if it kept up like this it was going to go from freshman pool party to debacle damn quick. 

Maria DeLuca was lounging by the pool, holding court with a guy Kyle knew was a few years older, someone Rosa Ortecho had dated and dumped publicly. Rosa who was too old to be there but hanging out with Max Evans and her sister, Liz, who was growing up damn hot Kyle realized. The group of them were laughing about something, joking around, a bunch of geeks having fun. There’s a new kid with them, someone he doesn’t recognize with his willowy, swaying form and overdone emo kid look, but there’s something that oddly makes Kyle think they’re hot. It strikes him odd since he’s never thought skinny chicks, or short haired chicks, were hot before. It’s not until Max shifts, the kid turning to face him more, that Kyle realizes that the odd kid is actually Alex Manes. 

Alex who he’s know since practically when they were born. His best friend. The person he had spent every summer night with since kindergarten. He hadn’t thought about him growing up too, not around playing football with Kyle, and kind of not around as much in general. His old man was giving him shit, Kyle knew, and even with the tree house, he kind of thought things were still bad for him. 

He looked different now though, more self assured as he laughed and joked with the others. Obviously Kyle wasn’t the only one reinventing himself because Alex never looked like that before. 

His jeans were wide legged, looking like he was swimming in them, and his tee shirt was for some band that hadn’t played together in years. Hell, Kyle wasn’t even sure they were still alive. Watching more intently than he should be, he starts realizing it’s more than just the clothes, though, more than just wallets on change and the white toes of his sneakers barely showing past the hem of his pants.

Alex’s ears are pierced, or at least the one that Kyle can see is, he’s got some kind of chain around his neck, and black bands on his wrists, and he’s wearing eyeliner. Thick black eyeliner like some crazy ass pale goth girl.

“Little bitch even has his nails painted.”

There’s snorting and laughing behind Kyle as a couple of the other guys find them. One of them nudged him in the back with his elbow. 

“What the hell are you staring at so hard, Valenti.” He leaned around him, looking. “Oh same thing we are. What the fuck even is that? I mean, he’s always been weird, but what the fuck is he trying for?”

“Getting his ass kicked,” one of the others said, bringing up a new round of laughter. “I mean, he’s just painted a target on his back. One I think I might take a shot at.”

“I wouldn’t get too close,”Another warned. “His brother’s on the varsity team. Flint Manes? Told me his old man’s trying to fix him or something. Don’t look like it’s working though.”

“Fix him from what?”

Kyle already knew imagine what was coming before they even said it. 

“Fix him from being a fag.”

Then there was more laughter, and jostling, and just before they grabbed Kyle to join in, Alex turned. For a moment their eyes met, and he watched as Alex started to smile, lifting a hand to wave. It was a bright smile, hopeful, the smile he’d known his whole life from his best friend. 

He didn’t wave back.

Eventually some parents showed up, ran off the older kids and a lot of others left when they did. The party settled down, a handful of them in the den as it was getting dark, and someone came up with the brilliant idea of spin the bottle. 

Course they were using a two liter bottle, and half the kids Kyle didn’t know as he settled into the circle. A handful of his teammates were still there though, and he’d seen Liz earlier but she seemed to have vanished. 

Almost sitting across from Kyle, was someone with their elbows on his knees, head turned and talking to the person beside them, this head bowed, baring their neck. Kyle was struck by a desire to move over, just so he could brush his fingers over the person’s nape, and then perhaps kiss there as well.

Until he’d realized it was Alex. Head turning, looking up but not at Kyle. In the dim lights of the room his eyeliner looks darker, maybe smudged, and the shadows make him look soft and delicate, all sharp angles and sunken in cheekbones. 

It had been like plunging into the ocean in the dead of winter, his blood running cold at that realization. Not because he’d mistaken Alex for a girl, but because knowing it was Alex, he was still wondering how his friend might react to tiny kisses against the soft, tanned line of his neck just below where dark hairs curled wildly. Thinking of what soft sounds Alex would make, the way he might curl, arching and writhing, trying to get closer, wanting more.

Kyle is jerked out of his very not okay close to sexual fantasy by a sharp elbow to his arm. “Shit, what the fuck, man?” 

“You even paying attention? It’s on you?”

Even as Kyle registers the words, he realized there’s a lot of mumbling and whispering, and everyone is staring at him. Which wouldn’t be odd, considering the game, except for the pointing and murmuring.

“Okay. What the hell with the elbow. I’m going to bruised. So who spun it?” 

It was as if as one that they pointed to the only person that wasn’t looking at him. Alex.

“What?”

Then there was laughter. 

“Come on, Valenti. You’re up. Kiss the freak.”

Kyle gaped, staring slack jawed at Alex for the longest time. Alex lifted his gaze, not saying a word, not moving back, just staring at Kyle as if waiting for his reaction. All around Kyle his friends laughed, loud enough he could barely hear the whispers. Barely.

Kyle shoved himself to his feet, lip curling before he could stop himself. He couldn’t let this happen. This was it. This was high school and his future and the team. He wasn’t losing that because Manes didn’t know how to be a fucking man.

“Fuck that. I’m not a fag.” He sneered down at Alex. “Not like some people.”

Storming out of the house, he tried to ignore the jeers and laughter behind him. He tried not to think about the way he’d been thinking about kissing Alex’s neck. Most of all, he pretended he hadn’t seen the look on Alex’s face in that moment. All pain and fear, and maybe, under it all, disappointment.


End file.
